Sarah Thomson’s week of stewing over her fate, and Toronto’s, ended at 5:30 p.m. Monday in heavy traffic on Ellesmere Ave.

As the mayoral candidate drove to yet another debate, Ryan Kelly, one of her volunteers, asked from the passenger seat: “What would be best for Toronto?”

At that moment, Thomson says, she knew her eight-month campaign to become Toronto’s mayor was dead, and that she was about to start stumping for George Smitherman — the former Ontario health minister she had repeatedly said can’t be trusted with a budget.

“I just realized, this is crazy — Toronto needs me to do this,” said Thomson, mincing no words in saying she believes Rob Ford, the frontrunner according to polls, would “rip apart” Toronto with reckless cuts while Smitherman, in second place, has the best chance of stopping him.

It was a Sept. 19 Nanos Research poll, Thomson says, that convinced her that she and rivals Smitherman, Rocco Rossi and Joe Pantalone had to talk about halting the Ford juggernaut. Ford had a 24-point lead over Smitherman while Thomson was dead last at 6.4 per cent support.

The Women’s Post publisher, whose shoestring, right-leaning campaign had spent $75,000 in donations and another $75,000 that is now debt, put out feelers.

Pantalone, the left-wing deputy mayor, didn’t seem keen during one conversation at a radio station, Thomson says, but talks with the others, first Rossi’s and then Smitherman’s, started in earnest.

They continued until Friday, when the Star revealed that Thomson was pondering dropping out and throwing her support to Rossi, a former executive in the private and non-profit sectors.

“I felt stabbed in the back,” believing the Rossi camp had leaked that information, Thomson says. That, combined with a Star-Angus Reid poll that showed she had more support than Rossi, had her leaning toward Smitherman.

On Monday, Smitherman released a spending blueprint that would use staff cuts through attrition, other restraints and hopes of a $100 million transit subsidy from the province to balance the city’s 2011 budget.

Thomson says his blueprint made her “eat her words.”

And there was yet another poll, by Ipsos Reid, showing Ford’s lead over Smitherman narrowing.

Thomson made it official Tuesday morning, telling reporters Smitherman is “a deeply experienced administrator and a consummate Toronto booster . . . (who) will be a mayor who builds on our strengths, and not one who leverages our differences.”

Just after 12:30 p.m., she and a handful of supporters emerged from her headquarters at Church St. and The Esplanade. As they waited at the northeast corner for the light to change, Smitherman and members of his team stood at the northwest corner, smiling and waving.

After a quick embrace, and small talk reminiscent of an awkward first date, they walked into his campaign headquarters, where his supporters burst into deafening applause and a chant of “Sarah, Sarah.”

Smitherman told Thomson — who entered the race in January with a subway plan and put the previously toxic subject of road tolls on the table — that he felt “so, so privileged to work alongside you to build an even better Toronto.”

She is withdrawing too late to take her name off the ballot and there’s no guarantee her supporters won’t still vote for her, or Ford for that matter.

Mitch Kosny, a professor in Ryerson University’s school of urban and regional planning, said Thomson’s move matters because it sharpens the race as a Smitherman-Ford matchup.

“It does show that George has some traction, some inertia, or at least there’s inertia toward an anybody-but-Ford campaign,” he said.

Despite Thomson’s desire to derail him, Ford was diplomatic.

“I wish Ms Thomson all the success in her future endeavours. All the best to her,” Ford told reporters after describing his budget plan. Asked if he expects Thomson supporters will vote for Smitherman, Ford said it’s “up to the people of the city.”

Rossi predicted Thomson supporters will move to him because they’re alike.

“She was not a career politician,” he said. “She brings a business perspective, an openness to ideas, a commitment to subways, although done in a different way. So I’m quite confident that this is going to be a boost to my campaign.”

Pantalone said Thomson will be missed from the campaign, but her endorsement means “Smitherman will have one extra vote — Sarah Thomson’s.”

Asked if there is any chance he’ll drop out, Pantalone said: “The only time I will withdraw is eight years from now when I have finished my second term as mayor.”

With files from Paul Moloney

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